Fence



Unirse Srarns Partnr @lirica JOHN H. BICKLEY, OF DOVER, NEV JERSEY.

FENCE.

SQPECIFICATIGN forming part of Letters Patent No. 319,057, dated June 2, 1885.

Application ilrd September El, 1884. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known thatI, JOHN H. BICKLEY, a citizen of the United States, residing in Dover, Morris county, New Jersey, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Fences, fully described and represented in the following specification and the accompanying drawings, forming a part of the same.

This invention consists in a combination, with angle-iron rails having integral hooks formed thereon and pointed toward the edge of the rail, of flexible wire bent back and forth between the rails, over said hooks, and secured thereto, as by clinching the hooks down upon the wire.

In the drawings a panelv oi' fence is shown with two posts, A A, and two rails with wire woven thereon in two differentmet hods; also a detached panel.

Figure l shows a front view of such fence; Fig. 2, a side view of the post with sections of the rails, and Fig. 3 a perspective view of a piece of the rail detached. Fig. 4 is aview of a panel detached.

The rail is formed of horizontal and vertical flanges, lettered, respectively, B and B'; and

the hooks c are formed by punching tongues from the fiange B', leaving openings d in the flange by the side of the hooks, the latter being punched and bent in each case so that the rails when secured parallel to one another, as at the tcp and bottom of the posts, may afford two parallel series of hooks, over which a continuous wire or wires may be bent back and forth from one rail to the other, so as to produce a net-work, depending in iineness upon the distances of the separate hooks and the disposition of the wire upon them.

Two methods of applying wire to the hooks are shown in Fig. l, in both of which wires e e' are shown, one of which is applied so as to avoid alternate hooksV upon the opposite rails, to which hooks the second wire, e', is applied. Twice as many wires may be used, the same being inclined much more than in Fig. l, to produce a finer netting, each wire being applied to every fourth hook upon the opposite rails. The angle form of the rails enables me to secure stiffness in both directions, in combina tion with the thinness of metal required to produce the hooks in the manner described,while the bending of the hooks transversely to the length of the rail affords asupport for the wire when woven back and forth in the manner described. The ends of the wire may be looped around the hook, as at f in Fig. l; or the hook may be hammered down to the rail to pinch the wire.

I am aware that it is not new to secureawire to a metallic fence-rail by pinching the same within the hook, and I do not therefore claim such construction, except in the combinations herein shown and described,in which the hooks are bent transversely to the length of the rail, so that the hooks may operate effectively to support the wire, whether the hooks are bent down upon the wire or not. Bythis construction I secure lightness and stiffness in the rails employed, and a construction by which an operator can apply the wire successfully to a great length of fence without bending such hook to secure the wire, as in constructions where the wire projects above and below the rails like pickets. My construction is also adaptedfor the manufacture and sale of the fence in sections or panels sixteen feet in leugth,i`or which purpose I apply the wires to the rails by suitable machinery, clinching all the hooks as the wire is bent over them, and cutting the wires off at the ends of the fence-panel just beyond the last hook at each end of the rail, and bending the same over the back of the hook, as at Besides the clinching of the hooks, the panels may be supported by crossbars of wood or 8 metal. Such a panel is shown in Fig. 4, including cross-bars g, secured between the rails at intervals by nails to hold thesame apart until placed upon the posts. Such panels may be coated with asphaltum varnish or with melted zinc by the ordinary galvanizing process, the latter coating serving not only to protect the material of the fence from rust, but to solder all the joints together, and to greatly increase the rigidity of the structure. J are provided with nail-holes 'i about eight feet apart, and in applying such rails to the posts the operator makes a saw-kerl, it, at the desired level in the post to fit the flange 13 and after placing the flange therein secures the roo The rails c 5 flange B to the face of the post by nails j, as shown in Fig. l, the ends o f the rails being preferably overlapped, as shown at the bottom rail in Fig. l, although the ends may be butted, as shown at the upper rail in the same figure.

I am aware that it is not new to use angleiron for fence-rails, and that tongues have been formed upon metallic fence-bars to clasp vertical rods or pickets by friction to the rail. I do not therefore claim either the use of the augle-iron rail or of tongues, broadly, but the combination of the two in the construction herein described, whereby the tongues are pro- `jeeted, respectively, toward the top and bottom of the fenee, as clearly shown in Fig. 2, so as'to retain the flexible wires when bent over the same and drawn toward the opposite rail in the :manner described.

Having thus set forth the nature of my invention, I claim as follows:

1. The coinbinatiomwith two angle-rails, B

B', arranged parallel to one another and provided w'ith the integral hooks c, projected away from the opposite rail in the manner described, of the wire or wires woven back and forth over the hooks, substantially as herein shown and described. I

2. As a new artieleof manufaeture,thefence panel composed of the parallel metallic anglerails formed with integral hooks projected away from the opposite rail, and having wire woven transversely between the rails and secured to the hooks by bending the latter, substantially as herein shown and described.

In testimony whereof Ihave hereunto set my hand in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

JOHN H. BICKLEY.

Vitnesses:

HENRY FAGKEN, L. LEE.. 

